Gordon believes Sprint Cup should try weekday races

Midweek traction

Jeff Gordon (left) believes that the Sprint Cup Series could benefit from holding races during the middle of the week during the summer. The series has not been very receptive to the input.

BY JENNA FRYER
AP Auto Racing Writer

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Ahhh, the dog days of summer – and those nights when there's nothing exciting on television.

Four-time NASCAR champion Jeff Gordon believes auto racing could fill that void. Gordon grew up in the "Thursday Night Thunder" era when he raced at tracks that hosted USAC races across the country that were televised on ESPN2.

NASCAR doesn't venture into that territory with the elite Sprint Cup Series, but the addition of Eldora Speedway to the Truck Series will mark three midweek races. The trucks ran on a Thursday night at Kentucky in June, are scheduled to run Wednesday, July 24, at Eldora and Wednesday, Aug. 21, at Bristol.

Gordon thinks maybe it's time for other series to try a midweek date.

"I think when 'Monday Night Football' ends, we should start 'Monday Night Racing,'" Gordon said. "But that's just me. Of course I came from 'Thursday Night Thunder,' and 'Thursday Night Thunder' was ridiculously successful back in the day."

Alas, Gordon says NASCAR officials have been cold to the idea.

"It seems like every time I talk to NASCAR about doing a weekly race or one midweek, they say 'Oh well if you do it on this day, you won't get as many people coming to the track, so the track suffers, and if you do it on this day, then maybe the track does well but then the people at home won't watch it because of this', so it always seems to be some kind of obstacle," he said.

"I am not saying we need to do it every week, but if we could find the right week in the schedule and mix it up, make it special, and make it make sense for the fans at home as well as the ones that could attend, then I think it would be awesome."

There was a buzz last weekend at Daytona about returning the night race back to its traditional early morning start, when teams were at the track for breakfast and on the beach by lunch. But Gordon believes running the race on July 4, regardless of what day it falls during the week, is a better solution and could start the midweek trend.

"I think July 4th might make sense because everybody is off on that day and looking for something to do," he said. "Of course, we are not off, but I think that is why it could work."